On discovering that I was pregnant with my first child, I realised that I didn't want to have my baby in hospital. However, being new to Australia I was unsure of the processes here and decided to broach the subject with my doctor first.

I had only seen this doctor a few times before and I wasn't too sure of her views/ideas on things 'alternative'. Obviously she isn't into things 'alternative' as her response was "oh! I've never had one of those (homebirth) on my books before!" I had to practically beg her for a referral for an 18week scan. She didn't want to give me one (referral) as "…You don't know which hospital you are going to". "But.." I nearly screamed at her, "…I might not being going to hospital.

A Homoeopath put me in touch with Marie Burrows, who runs Birth Rites Australia, an active birth education centre, I rang Marie and arranged to have a consultation with her. Apart from wanting to find out how to go about having a home birth I also wanted to work out why I had a deep nagging fear of giving birth in hospital. Every time I visualised giving birth all I could 'see' was bright lights, lots of people in white coats rushing around and I could 'feel' a tightness around my neck that would force me to take a huge breath. But this didn't give me a logical reason as to why I wanted to give birth at home. I realise now that I never needed a 'logical reason' Darryn and I talked about this with Marie and she suggested that I had some sort of memory of my birth, the tightness round my neck was possibly a memory of the umbilical cord round my neck, part of the traumatic birth my mother had always told me about.

Marie gave me a list of independent midwives who would be at the birth wherever we decided to have it. She explained about the birth centres available and the local hospitals. I wasn't keen on the birth centre idea, as I understood that you had to be having a 'perfect' pregnancy and labour to give birth there. Too much room for change as far as I could see it. Anyway, Darryn and I decided that our main aim was to have a positive experience for all three of us whatever road we went down. We signed up for a 10 week birth education course with Birth Rites that would take us through to a week before I was due.

We had a 19 week scan at a private clinic and everything was normal. Up to then I had been very busy at work and still had not spoken to any of the midwives, I think the scan gave me a sense of reality and I started phoning. I called Akal. I told her that I was looking for a midwife for a birth at the birth centre (by this stage I didn't think a homebirth was going to be possible), Akal's response was "why not have it at home?" I think I babbled a bit during this conversation, probably hardly believing what I was hearing.

At about 22 weeks I had my first of many antenatal visits with Akal. All the visits were arranged for after work hours so that I didn't have to use any sick leave and Darryn could attend all the visits and listen to the baby's heartbeat. Akal encouraged us to both ask any questions that we had, always prepared to discuss the pros and cons of any procedure.

At 30 weeks we started the Birth education course at Birth Rites and quickly realised how much we didn't know. The major benefit of these classes for me was, I came to grips with the possibility that I might need to be transferred to hospital. What gave me confidence was Darryn's ability to provide positive support no matter what took place and the fact that Akal would be with me. I saw Akal as the person who would be honest with me and not try to force a procedure on me because it would make her life easier (a reflection of how I believe that many midwives and obstetricians behave).

My due date was about the 18th of July, I had finished work three weeks before and was quite happy by the 18th that Serena could make her appearance (I'm a Virgo and I don't like things happening out of order). Serena obviously knew this and she gave me another 10 days of being just myself before making her appearance.

On the evening of Friday, 27th of July Darryn and Dianna had tickets to a rock concert. I, for obvious reasons, had declined to go. I didn't think I wanted to be by myself so I arranged to spend the evening with friends for dinner and a movie. I was dropped off around 6pm. In less than half an hour of Darryn leaving I discovered what I guessed was a show (the mucus plug). I very casually told Nicki and Matt that 'I think things might have started'. Matt was terrified that I was going to have the baby while I was there. After a feed of Thai we walked down to the movie theatre at Liechhardt, on the way I realised that my waters had broken. I could feel a few contractions throughout the movie but nothing scary.

We got home about 12.30am that night and I finally told Darryn and Di that things had started. They had been too excited about their concert on the way home for me to tell them any sooner. We were all quite excited, but I was obviously more excited than I realised as a photo that was taken about 12.30am quite clearly shows that I was very, very excited.

After a long hot shower to clean off all the fluid that had leaked out I tried to go to bed. I lasted about an hour and realised that I wasn't going to be able to sleep through the contractions. I went out into the lounge and leaned into a beanbag. The contractions were coming fairly closely and quite strong but irregular. As everyone else was asleep I decided to ring my sister in London. She has two children, the youngest being 6 months at the time so I figured she would be good to talk to. She started timing my contractions and told me that I should ring my midwife as they were coming every 2 to 3 minutes and lasting for a minute or longer. So about 3.30am I rang Akal and said that 'things had started' and 'could she make her way down to our place'.

About this time Dianna woke up as I was starting to make some noise through the contractions, the low groaning that we had practised at our classes. Di helped me to arrange things in the lounge, light candles and pull the curtains (I couldn't bear any artificial light). I was walking around or kneeling into the beanbag at this stage.

Darryn woke up about 4.30am, just in time to see me vomit into the bucket, I felt good about that as I knew this meant the labour was starting. Darryn and I walked around in circles in the lounge with Darryn holding a hot water bottle and hot facecloth on my stomach and back. Back into the beanbag then a bit more walking around. The contractions were long and coming three at a time and they never got 'regular'.

Akal arrived about 5am and very quietly organised herself in the background. Through out the labour I sensed Akal just quietly observing me, only making her presence known when she really needed to. This seemed very natural and very comforting.

I think I went into the bath for a bit, did quite a bit of walking around and quite a bit of being in the beanbag. I was making a lot of noise and groaning still through the contractions, noise seemed to help.

Around 9am Akal asked if I would like to have an internal examination to see how far dilated I was. I guess I said yes and had to lie on my back. I could tell from Akal's face that I was not as far dilated as she had thought. By her estimation I was at 4cm dilated. I remember thinking that that this wasn't very far on but it didn't seem to me to be a big issue. Akal suggested getting into the pool and I must have agreed, as about an hour later I was able to get into the very warm water in the pool that was now in our kitchen. While waiting for the pool to be ready I lay on my side and Darryn and Di rocked me from side to side through the contractions. At this stage I was singing though the contractions 'la la la la', which (Akal told me later) was definitely preferable to the noises that I had been making. Unfortunately I didn't continue to sing once I got in the pool.

I remember very clearly, feeling the heat of the water on my lower back and front, as I slowly lowered myself into the pool, it was sensational. The heat definitely sped things up and the contractions became very intense and much longer. I was yelling though them and rolling around in the water from side to side. Darryn says, at this stage he was most concerned that I was going to tip the pool over, he wanted me to calm down and obviously I was not going to calm down. I remember the day was very stormy. I had the back door open so that I could feel the cool air on my back. I also demanded that ice and cool water be poured over my back. This was necessary to counter the heat of the water in the pool.

The need to push was a very clear feeling, and I think that Akal and Darryn were surprised that it was happening so soon. The time would have been about 12noon and I had only been in the water for about two hours. I screamed "open! open!, open!, open!" which was my way of making sure that my cervix was fully dilated to allow me to start pushing.

Pushing was definitely the hardest bit; Akal guided me the whole way, very clearly telling me what I needed to do. Once the head was out, she told Darryn to reach in to the water and guide the baby up with his hands. A final push and Darryn and Akal carefully lifted Serena up to my arms. Serena Jay was born at 12.14pm on Saturday 28th July 2001. I had no pain relief and no complications.

It's all a bit hazy after that. I remember speaking to my mum (who lives in New Zealand) about 2 minutes after Serena was born, which was a very special moment for me and for Mum. Akal helped to birth my placenta about 20 minutes later and Darryn cut the umbilical cord. I gave the placenta a close inspection before it was put safely away in the freezer (We hope to plant it with a tree for Serena next winter). Serena was weighed and dressed and wrapped up. I had some food and a very long shower. Akal helped me with all of this, checking all the way through that I was OK. About two hours after the birth Serena and I were tucked up in bed and left to rest.

Akal visited us every day for the first week. She gave me great advice and help with everything including breastfeeding, night sleeping, my health and well being. She also made it clear to Darryn and Dianna that I was not allowed to do anything around the house and to rest as much as possible. Six weeks after the birth we had our final check up as part of Akal's midwifery service.

Three months down the track we have just visited Akal for a 'well baby' check up, I feel more confident having Akal check Serena rather than a new person, who doesn't know us. Serena weighed 3.3kg or 7lb6 at birth and is now up to 5.5kg or12lb5. She is a very calm baby who sleeps well at night, with only mid night (3.30am) feed. She is happy and alert and learning about being a person very quickly. I know that part of Serena's happiness comes from her birth, which was a positive experience for all of us, in a caring and supportive environment.

Darryn and I are extremely glad that we followed the path that we did, and Akal was and still is a wonderful guide for our adventure with Serena.

Thanks and love Rachelle, Darryn and Serena



Akal Khalsa is a Sydney based midwife and provides midwifery services including: homebirths,
pre-conception consultations, childbirth preparation, nutritional advise and breastfeeding support.

For more information Contact Akal.